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SAP performance testing

"This was the first time we have engaged with a consultancy to provide Performance and Load Testing. I was delighted with Acutest’s approach and ability to work within our timeframes and budgetary constraints. Acutest quickly identified a number of SAP tuning and configuration issues which in the absence of Performance Testing would have resulted in major disruption for our users ...."

Ian Stringer, ISAP Manager

Situation:

West Sussex County Council provides services for residents, business and visitors throughout the West Sussex region, and has a gross annual spending of £1.2bn. As part of an ongoing cost reduction exercise, the Council was undertaking a number of changes to its internal processes supported by upgrades and expansion of its existing SAP systems.

The changes included reducing the number of paths for purchasing and concentrating the processes within a core team, introducing a self-service portal for employee information and manager approvals, and a range of business warehouse reports. This work also coincided with moving the applications to a new infrastructure. The following interrelated systems were included in the program : SAP Enterprise Portal, Citrix NetScaler for secure network load balancing, ERP Core Components (ECC), Business Warehouse (BW), Procurement (SRM and MDM) and Employee and Manager Self Service for HR and pay (ESS and MSS)

Response:

Acutest prepared a Performance Test Plan to address the specific needs of the ISAP programme. A Risk-based Testing approach was adopted to focus on the areas of greatest perceived risk and to work within the available budget and timeframe.

The key areas for testing were:

Internal purchasing, which had a major software upgrade

Employee self-service, which would introduce a major new user base

The tests simulated a target user load of 3000 (representing a third of the WSCC self service user base making concurrent access) and 25 users (representing a third of the central purchasing team making concurrent access), simulating a day's work for a sustained period of 1 day. HP Performance Centre’s “Software as a Service” (SaaS) was used for the load / performance test tool suite, which allowed licence costs and set up time to be significantly reduced.

Outcome:

Acutest quickly identified a failure of a purchasing subsystem under load, as well as a number of SAP and NetScaler tuning/configuration issues.

SAP and NetScaler tuning is a complex area, and a key benefit was our ability to support the problem diagnosis efforts by repeating the tests multiple times as and when required. This significantly reduced the elapsed time to re-configure and optimise SAP to enable WSCC to meet their target load successfully prior to go live.

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Case studies

"Acutest ensured that we only introduced applications that performed to our exacting requirements and did not disrupt existing services. Our programmes require large scale change in short timescales; there is no room for delay and disruption. The speed and clarity with which Acutest worked mirrored our own ethos and made them an excellent choice."

"This was the first time we have engaged with a consultancy to provide Performance and Load Testing. I was delighted with Acutest’s approach and ability to work within our timeframes and budgetary constraints. Acutest quickly identified a number of SAP tuning and configuration issues which in the absence of Performance Testing would have resulted in major disruption for our users ...."

"Acutest helped us to help ourselves. Their expert testing approach, guidance and coaching turned us from experienced users into an effective testing unit. My only regret is that I didn't engage them earlier in the programme when I'm sure we would have derived extra benefit from their involvement."

"With thousands of people using our online educational services every day, the performance and reliability of our Web based applications is critical to our success as a business. The portals have to be able to cope with heavy loads and we need to be able to provide assurances to our clients that the applications will scale to meet their needs. With the development of the performance test centre we’ll be able to further reduce the risk of deploying new applications, in addition to reducing testing time and cost over the next three years.”

"In recent years, we have used a mix of in house resources, contractors and external testing companies to service our testing needs. When we first brought in Acutest, their approach and services set them apart from what we had come to expect from the independent testing market. We were particularly impressed with their performance and load testing services and the way they helped us align our testing with our business and technical risks in a string of new releases."

"The Post Office has changed radically over the time that Acutest have provided us with an outsourced testing service. But I’ve never had to ask them to change - not only have they maintained a consistently high standard of service, they have continued to evolve their services to meet our changing needs."

"We were very pleased with Acutest's contribution both to the programme and to improving our overall testing capability. By working with Acutest we were able to successfully deliver a high quality product on time."

“We were impressed with Acutest’s professionalism, responsiveness and flexibility throughout the engagement. Acutest provided the Library with confidence that when we launched the new service, our users’ experience would be enhanced.”

"The WWU business went live and was able to fulfil its regulatory requirements. Post go-live, the systems have run very successfully. Acutest's testing approach was the key to verifying our systems and processes, and giving us the confidence to go-live. I'm a strong believer that small expert teams using lean project processes will achieve goals more quickly. Acutest's approach and people fitted effectively into this structure. Despite the speed we moved at they still managed to leave us with a lasting asset: a full test suite that we can use when we test future enhancements and releases."